International Day of Persons with Disabilities special activities

- Wakefield District Radio Society (David Evans G0EVA and other members) will operate special callsign station GB0IDD ( International Disability Day ). Wakefield District Radio society does have a significant proportion (around 30%) of members who are variously disabled. On days 1, 2 and 3 December 202 3 to mark the UN International Day for persons with disabilities. Activity will be mainly ( but not exclusively ) in SSB bands at 14-28 MHz. QSL via eQSL only.

- Francisc Grünberg YO4PX published an article about the International Day for persons with disabilities. http://yo4px.blogspot.ro/2012/11/ziua-internationala-persoanelor-cu.html

- Klaus Woerner DJ9DX send an article written from Ralf DH7RD about the World handicaped day: Integration through Amateur Radio Disability is No Obstacle Werner Divé (DL7PD) The Center for the Severely Physically Disabled (Zentrum für körperlich Schwerbehinderte) in Frankfurt’s Niederrad district opened 25 years ago.

The then-manager of the facility contacted the DARC even before the first phase of construction was complete. She saw amateur radio as offering the opportunity to give the facility’s disabled residents an exciting technological connection to the outside world. Ralf Dauksch (DH7RD), at the DLØFVA station a radio station as a “window” to the outside: That was the idea behind establishing contact between outsiders and facility residents. Subsequent face-to-face contact “in real life,” such as at the center’s cafeteria, was expressly desired.

After all, the facility wanted to truly be a part of life in the Niederrad community. Antenna cable in rain downspout The then-president of the local amateur group for Frankfurt, Werner Klein (DL2FBG), ran with the idea. It didn’t take long to find space for a radio station. The center financed radio equipment and antennas itself. Technical difficulties were resolved in consultation with the building contractor and the architect. For example, aesthetics made it impossible to install the antenna and control cables along the building’s exterior wall.

The creative solution was an additional rain downspout to discreetly conceal the cables. In the end, the DLØFVA (Frankfurt Association for Assistance to the Elderly and Disabled, or Frankfurter Verband für Alten- und Behindertenhilfe) station was equipped with a 3-el. Yagi, W3DZZ, a dipole and ground planes from 70 cm to 160 m.

Broadcasting from Niederrad The facility began operating in 1987. The “window to the world” became a broadcasting station that was part of a network of messages spanning across Germany, broadcast for ten years by Werner Klein (DL2FBG) and Manfred Niksch (DL4FS).

Word that there was an active radio station in the center got around quickly. Blind and disabled people from all over the Frankfurt area came to the facility, including some radio amateurs. The idea of fostering contact between the disabled and non-disabled has developed steadily: “The radio guys” are a fixture at summer festivals and Christmas celebrations, and the radio station remains something special to this day.

The residents of the disabled center were interested in amateur radio as a means of communication, but they did not participate in the CW courses and DE exams that were offered. With one exception, that is: Ralf Dauksch (DH7RD), disabled from birth, had an abiding interest in wireless communication. Ralf is now DH7RD It didn’t take long for Ralf to catch the “HF bug” – a bug that has stayed with him to this day. He received his call sign, DE2RDP, after passing the DE exam in 1991.

Three years later, he passed the test for what was then a C license, so then he was QRV as DG1FEO. With support from his parents, Ralf received intensive training from his “personal trainer,” Heinz Peter Niksch (DL4FCH), who also accompanied him to an exam at the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) and continued to work with him after Ralf passed the exam and was given the call sign DH7RD. Ralf’s years of amateur radio operation from his parents’ land were only possible because Heinz Peter helped him by setting up an electricity supply using a photovoltaic system and by installing the antenna.

A single operator with an audience At the Center for the Severely Physically Disabled, where Ralf has now become a resident for family reasons, Ralf became a single operator in DLØFVA after a brief period of training from Werner (DL2FBG) and Vaclav (DL4FF). His radio work regularly draws curious onlookers from the facility, who watch with interest.

Ralf is unique at the center, and he has earned a great deal of respect for his accomplishments and successes at his hobby. When a Korean delegation visited the facility in 2011, he impressed the visitors by handling a QSO perfectly. DH7RD – a successful OM As a member of the local amateur group for Frankfurt (F05), Ralf participates in the group’s activities, and he is happy to talk about his DX successes.

He has now confirmed 273 countries – a noteworthy accomplishment that makes him one of F05’s most successful DXers. Ralf also collects diplomas and certificates, and the many hanging decoratively in his room confirm his success in that area.

He is especially proud of the DXCC, and that he was one of the first radio amateurs to acquire the diploma for the 2011 women’s soccer world cup in platinum. Via amateur radio, the window to the outside, Ralf paved the way early in the new millennium for a face-to-face encounter between amateurs from Luxembourg and those from F05, in which he participated himself. Ralf hopes to attend the F05 field day sometime. And why not? Overcoming difficulties is nothing unusual for radio amateurs, and on air, Ralf is just an op like any other anyway.